The windowless stone house smelled of damp clay and the heavy tang of burnt copper. Inside the cool gloom, the silence was broken only by the ragged breathing of two boys whose bodies were completely healed, but whose minds were still trapped under a raining barrage of heavy iron boots.
Barn stood in the center of the room, his massive chest rising and falling as he wiped a thick layer of dust from his forehead.
He wore a plain, sweat-stained villager shirt—the old crooked guard helmet from the previous kingdom was long gone, discarded alongside his old identity.
He looked down at the two boys, his voice dropping its fake traveler act and returning to a deep, grounded rumble.
"The potato farmer was right. Your tracks are clear. Your bones are set. You're fine now. Get up."
Jayhon braced his palms against the dirt.
He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to force his muscles to move.
But the moment his heels dug into the ground, a phantom crack echoed inside his ears.
He could feel the cold weight of that guard's boot pinning his chest; he could hear the sickening sound of his own arms splintering into pieces.
His lungs seized.
His arms buckled beneath him like wet paper, and he dropped heavily back into the dirt, his small shoulders shivering as a cold sweat broke across his neck.
Beside him, hanjun didn't even manage to lift his torso.
His vacant gray eyes were fixed flatly on the stone ceiling, his jaw locked tight.
Every time his brain told his legs to move, the memory of those fire-enhanced fists fracturing his cheekbones flashed behind his eyelids.
His muscles simply refused to obey.
"I can't," Jayhon whimpered, his face turning into the floor.
"Mr. Barn... every time I try... it feels like he's still stomping on my arms."
"Yeah, my arms are like totally frozen too,"
Hanjun muttered, his usual flat tone sounding completely defeated as his fingers twitched uselessly against the clay.
"It's like my brain knows we got absolutely destroyed, and it's just quitting on me. This sucks."
A soft, rustling sound cut through the dark.
Elena slowly dragged herself across the floor. She winced, her long elven ears twitching as she forced her trembling knees to bear her weight. She knelt beside them, her silk-white hair falling forward like a curtain of snow.
Gently, she leaned down and pressed a soft, lingering kiss directly onto the blue-haired boy's forehead.
Then, she shifted, her lips touching the forehead of the silver-haired boy.
"You are fine now, sweethearts,"
Elena murmured, her voice like warm velvet in the chilly room.
"The bad man is gone. Your big sister is here. You can stand up."
Jayhon sniffled, but his arms remained locked.
Hanjun looked at her with total skepticism.
"Come on, Elena. You really think a kiss is just gonna magically heal us? That's not how it works,"
he grumbled, shaking his head.
Elena pouted and pulled back, her face tilting. For a fraction of a second, her playful demeanor completely vanished.
Her emerald eyes narrowed, her lips thinning into a serious, razor-sharp line of intense concentration.
She dropped her center of gravity, her breathing slowing to a deep, rhythmic cadence that made the air around her hum.
"I didn't want to use the high-tier method,"
Elena said, her voice dropping into a solemn, authoritative whisper that instantly made both boys freeze.
"But if your minds are that stubborn, I will have to force the healing directly into your nervous tracks. Watch closely."
She held her right hand over the blue-haired boy's chest, her fingers curling like she was gripping an invisible thread.
Deep within her gut, she triggered a tiny, harmless spark of her remaining energy, mixing it with a loose, static friction.
Fzzzt! Spark!
A bright, crackling shower of sparkling green and brilliant yellow light erupted from her palm, sizzling through the air with a theatrical hiss.
The yellow sparks hit his chest.
In reality, it was nothing more than a harmless, static tickle—a beautiful light show with zero medical value—but to the boy's wide, terrified eyes, it looked like the ultimate divine magic.
The sudden warmth broke the loop in his brain.
"Oh..." he gasped. "The... the cold feeling in my arms is gone! It's warm!"
With a sudden, instinctive surge, he pushed himself off the dirt.
He scrambled to his feet, standing perfectly straight as he stared at his palms in absolute disbelief.
"I'm standing! Look! She cured the freeze!"
The silver-haired boy's eyes darted from his friend's upright frame to Elena's serious, unblinking face.
"Whoa, wait... what is that yellow stuff?"
he muttered, suddenly feeling a bit left out.
Elena turned her gaze to him, her expression remaining severe.
She leveled her palm with his face.
Fzzzt!
Another beautiful cascade of green and yellow sparks danced across his nose.
"Stand up,"
she ordered.
The static tickled his forehead, instantly breaking the phantom image of the guard's fist.
Believing the illusion, his knees unlocked.
He rolled over, planted his feet against the clay floor, and stood up completely normally, rubbing the back of his neck.
The moment both boys were upright, Elena's serious face instantly shattered.
She let out a melodic, ringing laugh, dropping her hands to her lap as she smiled at them.
"See? I told you your big sister had this! A little bit of magic, and you're both as good as new!"
Barn, who was leaning against the stone doorframe, let out a low, rumbling chuckle.
He knew exactly what she had done—a classic trick of using harmless, flashy energy to deceive a panicked mind into healing itself.
....
The reality of living on the outer edge of the Kingdom of Astris became clear within the first week.
The village was situated right outside the colossal outer walls of the kingdom, meaning the local authorities and imperial suppliers treated the rural settlers like low-born squatters.
Market wagons only passed through the valley trail once a day, and if you missed the noon bell, you got nothing.
Barn stood outside the house, looking at a wide, barren stretch of hard clay directly adjacent to the stone wall.
His face went solemn. Dropping his weight into his boots, he brought his foot down with a heavy, precise
THUD.
A low, rhythmic ripple shot through the topsoil. The hard, compacted clay groaned, splitting into a perfect, uniform square spot—a massive garden grid.
The dirt within the boundary was instantly pulverized, turned over, and softened into rich soil without a single shovel being lifted.
"Get over here, Kids,"
Barn called out.
The two kids shuffled out of the house, wearing simple, plain villager clothes just like the rest of the locals.
"Since we're staying here, you're going to earn your keep,"
Barn said, leaning against a wooden fence post.
"And more importantly, you're going to learn how to actually use what's inside your guts. That guard from the palace... he was supposed to be a Tier 2 Junior according to the official reports.But well, from what I saw during that fight, he was way more than that. He was easily a Tier 4 Junior or even higher. You two never stood a chance because you don't understand the source."
Jayhon tilted his head.
"How do we learn the source, Mr. Barn?"
"Every type of energy has its own nature,"
Barn said, pointing a thick, calloused finger at his chest.
"You can't force it like a dumb brute. Water energy—the stream you pull from—it requires absolute, unyielding calm. If your mind is a raging storm, your water will scatter into mist. You have to be like the deep ocean. Still on the surface, but holding an immense, heavy pressure underneath.
Heck, if you get good enough, you could probably even turn your water into ice.
I don't know how to do that myself, but it's possible."
Jayhon's eyes lit up at the mention of ice.